Macross Parodies and Pop Culture References
Television *The next entry released in the Super Dimension Trilogy after Super Dimension Fortress Macross was Super Dimension Century Orguss. Both shared a lot of the same staff and thus several references were put in: **In episode 2, Vanessa Laird, Shammy Milliome and Lynn Minmay each cameo as protagonist Kei's girlfriends when he imagines them during his realization that he cannot go back to his time. (Kei also shares the same voice actor as Max Jenius, Show Hayami). In the dub by Animaze during the 90s, the girlfriend that looks like Shammy is referred to by the name of her Robotech counterpart, Sammie.Kei finished watching Macross *During the preview for episode 12 in episode 11 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Haruhi references Basara Nekki's famous "Listen to my song" Kyon replies "Bomber!", referencing the group Basara Nekki is the lead singer of, Fire Bomber. *In the opening scene to episode 8 of Deadman Wonderland, the character Azuma Genkaku (alias Uber Monk) says Basara Nekki's catchphrase, as he is about to fight the protagonists with his bullet-firing electric guitar "Flying V Nirvana". He achieves victory through his music but unlike Basara, he is a villain. *''Martian Successor Nadesico'' affectionately parodies various anime from the space opera and real robot genres, notable references to Macross include: **a scene where a space ship crashes onto an island on Earth **The Earth faction in Martian Successor Nadesico is also called the "United Earth Spacy", a reference to the U.N. Spacy. **the episode You're the Next Captain of the Nadesico, where the female crew members participate in a Miss Macross style contest to win a record contract as well as become captain for the day. The united Earth officials discuss the winner's potential slogan, one of the suggested ones was *Similar to ''Martian Successor Nadesico, the space opera parody The Irresponsible Captain Tylor also has a Miss Macross-like beauty contest in episode 8, the episode itself however focuses on a spy going by the name of Harumi trying to assassinate Captain Tylor but fails to kill him. Instead, she develops feelings for him, similar to how Milia fails to kill ace pilot Max during the episode Good-bye Girl and falls in love with him. *In the live-action science fiction franchise, Stargate, Earth's first interstellar ship is named the Prometheus while the second is named the Daedalus. *In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon, the catwalks and clusters of cylinders that dominate the engine room on the Venator-class Star Destroyers are an architectural nod to the gravity control room found aboard the SDF-1 Macross.The Clone Wars Episode Guide: Cloak of Darkness *In Session #7 of Cowboy Bebop, Heavy Metal Queen, one of the truck drivers wears a fighter pilot suit as seen The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? ''and ''Macross Plus. The latter shared common staff with Cowboy Bebop. *In episode 9 of The Transformers, Day of the Machines, Skyfire, whose design is a heavily modified from Jetfire, who was identical to a VF-1S, transformed into a configuration very similar to GERWALK in order to land on a ship. *In episode 10 of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers Victory, The New Warrior - Hellbat, the character Leozack, who has an F-14 Tomcat for an alternate mode, transforms into a configuration identical to GERWALK mode in mid-air to fight Star Saber. *The character design of Captain Nemo from Gainax's Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is based on that of Captain Global. OVA *In the Lucky Star OVA, Konata calls Miyuki "ginga no utahime" (galactic songstress) and says that "Motteke" is now different. This is a reference to Macross Frontier, in which Endou Aya (Miyuki's seiyuu) plays Sheryl Nome. One of Sheryl's songs, "Iteza Gogokuji Don't Be Late" ("Sagittarius 9PM Don't Be Late") has the line "motteke ryuusei chirashite date", which certainly features different wording compared to "Motteke! Sailor Fuku" (the opening theme of Lucky Star TV). *The 1991 mockumentary, Otaku no Video by Gainax features many references to various anime popular among first generation anime fans (Shōji Kawamori and Hideaki Anno being major examples fans who entered successfully into the industry) as well as anime and manga from the later time where the industries were emerging out of underground and flowing into mainstream Japanese culture. Macross, being so ground breaking makes it heavily referenced in this OVA. Examples include: **At the Otaku headquarters, the character Tanaka has a movie poster with the VF-1S on it. **The characters watch a video of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? and Tanaka comments on the realism of the animation, the scene in question was animated famed Gainax director Hideaki Anno who was working freelance at the time on projects such as the Macross television series and movie. **Friends of the main character comment that his girlfriend looks like Lynn Minmay. **The giant robot at the centre of the Otakuland theme park looks like the SDF-1 Macross mixed with elements of the titular robot from Gainax's Gunbuster OVA while the bridge resembles the titular ship from Space Battleship Yamato. *''Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket references the U.N. Spacy of Macross with the words "U.N.T. Spacy" appearing on vehicles and Mobile Suits of the Earth Federation,''Anime UK magazine, Volume 1, Issue 5, 1993 this was before Gundam was released officially in English, it was referring to what is now called the , U.N.T. Spacy has now been retconned to mean 'U'nder 'N'ormal 'T'actical 'Sp'ecial 'A'ssortment 'C'onstruction 'Y'ard. *The last scene in the first episode of The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA has the Raalgon stop fighting when the crew of the Soyokaze sing, similar to how exposure to music and other Earth culture ended Space War I. Movies *The 1986 anime movie, Project A-ko features parodies of several 80s anime series, among them Macross. An example is Graviton city, where the first part of the movie takes place, it is an ancient starship that a race of aliens have been tracking down similar to how the Zentradi tracked down the Supervision Army ship that became the SDF-1 Macross. Manga *The short Extra Party (chapter) in between Party 26 and Party 27 of the Comic Party manga (part of a franchise about Otaku subculture and Doujinshi writers) the character Eimi gets the other characters to do her summer break homework for her. The enthusiastic Subaru offers to do the art project, the character Yuu and protagonist Kazuki expect her to build a giant robot out of milk cartons (later found out to be all drunken by her fellow Otaku, Taishi). Subaru does actually do this and it is a scale replica of the SDF-1 Macross called "Super Time and Space Fortress Pitch-Black", going way beyond the expectations of Kazuki and Yuu. A sudden gust of wind, however, causes the robot to crash on top of Eimi's house. When she arrives at school, the teachers and students refuse to believe that a giant robot destroyed her house and laugh. The name is a pun, sounds likes in Japanese. *YF-19 Variable Fighters make a cameo at the in Stage 111 of UQ Holder!, Gathering for the Mahora Martial Arts Tournament. Comics *The character Whirl, from the''Transformers'' comics by IDW, can transform into a helicopter and has a third mode called "Heloped" which strongly resembles GERWALK mode, this was carried over to the Generations toy by Hasbro. Interestingly, the Generation One toy he is based on, was a Hasbro redeco of a toy by Takatoku Toys, the same company that manufactured the original 1/55 VF-1 Valkyries, although that mold never included a Heloped mode. *Likewise, Jetfire, who originated in the G1 toyline as a repainted VF-1S from Takatoku's Macross toyline since had the the look homaged in subsequent works such as the Unicron trilogy of anime series and most recently, the IDW comics that had occasionally him wear a tactical mask that heavily resembled the Valkyrie in question. References Category:Macross and Popular Culture